


A Matter of Communication

by theholidayclub



Category: Newsies (1992), Newsies!: the Musical - Fierstein/Menken
Genre: 5 Times, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-28
Updated: 2014-02-28
Packaged: 2018-01-14 02:35:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,177
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1249570
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theholidayclub/pseuds/theholidayclub
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>or: 5 things David says that surprise Jack, and one thing David says that doesn't surprise Jack at all.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Matter of Communication

1.

Jack didn’t like school too much. He didn’t hate it, like people seemed to assume, but still, he couldn’t help but think there were better things he could be doing with his time.

That’s probably why he wasn’t the biggest fan of David’s study plans; why would he spend time after school learning things when he’d spent the whole day doing just that?

He put up with them, though, because sometimes it was easier to go along with David’s plans, especially when he was so sure he was right.

Usually, it was easy enough just to knock out his homework and convince David to go to Medda’s or Jacobi’s for a bit, or even the rec center on occasion. Today though, Jack just couldn’t seem to concentrate.

“Do you think your sister likes me?” he found himself asking David a few moments later, math equations completely forgotten

David looked up from the notebook he had been leaning over, his expression surprised and confused and a little bit of something else Jack couldn’t quite identify.

“I – Scientists accidently killed a 507 year old clam named Ming when they tried to study it.”

Jack was pretty sure that wasn’t the right answer to his question, unless Sarah had magically turned into a clam (which, actually, would be kind of cool), but it was interesting enough. “What’d they do that for?”

David seemed to visibly relax at this new line of questioning, so Jack let his old one go. He’d get it out of Les or something, later.

 

2.

 Dave had been acting strange lately. Or at least, stranger than usual, because as his best friend Jack really couldn’t deny that David was a bit odd as an overall personality trait. He willingly hung out with Skittery, after all; no sane person would do that.

It’d really only been the last week or so that he’d noticed the change, around the same time as he asked Sarah out, if he had the timing right. He figured David was sick, or something, and was surprised his mom wasn’t coddling him more; usually Esther jumped on the opportunity.

It came to a head when David got back to the Jacobs’ apartment nearly an hour after Jack and Sarah had. He’d meant to ask Sarah why her brother wasn’t walking with them like usual, but she’d taken his hand and smiled at him, and he’d found himself distracted.

The expression on David’s face, however, was a bit more pressing than Sarah’s hand on his knee; and that was saying something. “Where were you?” he asked, confusion etched on his face as David came into the living room and marched right passed Jack and Sarah with barely a glance in their direction.

“Retaking my chemistry test,” he grumbled, heading into the kitchen.

“Why?” Sarah was the one who asked this time, twisting in her seat to look at David and removing her hand from Jack’s knee in the process. He was weirdly relieved about the lack of pressure.

“Because I failed it the first time,” David snapped, slamming the door to the cupboard he’d been rifling through shut and storming off towards the bedroom he shared with Les, leaving a mystified Jack and Sarah in his wake.

Jack always figured it was impossible for David to fail anything related to school, between his study plans and how smart he was.

He had to be sick. Jack would mention it to Esther before dinner.

 

3.

 Whatever had been bothering David before, he seemed to recover quickly enough. Jack figured it was the soup Esther liked to make when someone wasn’t feeling well (he’d been on the receiving end of a bowl or two himself over the years) and couldn’t help but take at least partial credit for Dave’s recovery. He’d been the one to alert Esther, after all

Either way, everything was pretty much back to normal now. It was better than normal, even, because on top of hanging out with David, Jack was spending more time with Sarah, too, and that usually involved an activity Jack figured David wasn’t really interested in.

Not that he went around thinking about kissing David. Because that’d be weird, since it was David, and all.

And he was dating his sister. That was an important part, too. Idiot.

Of course, David chose that moment to sit down across from Jack at the lunch table, and Jack found himself flushing under David’s raised eyebrow.

“Do I want to know?” the younger boy asked, dropping his lunch tray down in front of him. “Or is it about my sister and going to scar me for life?”

Jack snorted, which David seemed to take as confirmation that Jack’s blush was related to Sarah. He rolled his eyes, and Jack was grateful for the easy out.

David glanced around uneasily for a moment, and seemed to relax when he realized that he and Jack were the only ones at their usually cramped table for the time being. Jack was just about to ask why he seemed so nervous when David opened his mouth and answered without the prompting.

“Darcy asked me out.”

Jack’s immediate response was to ask who that was, but he managed to stop himself from accidentally digging himself into a hole and thought about it for a minute.

Darcy. Tech guy, and Dave’s chemistry partner. Jack had met him twice, and thought he smiled too much.

“How’d he take the rejection?” Jack asked with a chuckle.

“Really well, considering I said yes.”

Jack’s fork clattered to the table.

David had a date? David had a date. David had a date with a guy named Darcy. David was going to go out on a date. Maybe multiple dates. Maybe David was going to have a boyfriend.

That wasn’t right. David didn’t date. David did homework and hung out with Jack and kept Skittery sane and Race and Spot from killing each other. David didn’t date.

“Oh. Great. Have fun?” Jack tried, picking up his fork as subtly as he could manage.

David grinned at Jack, looking relieved and nervous, but most of all excited, and suddenly, Jack wasn’t really hungry anymore.

 

4.

Nobody was expecting Mayer to get hurt. The factory wasn’t the greatest job out there, and maybe he wasn’t as young as he used to be, but he’d always been careful, always been good at the work that he did.

His injury wasn’t the end of the world. He’d be able to go back to work as soon as it was healed, he wouldn’t suffer any major setbacks health wise because of it, so long as he was careful and didn’t overexert himself.

Still, things were going to be tight around the Jacobs’ household for a bit.

Sarah already had a part time job (she’d gotten it not long after she and Jack broke up, yes he was fine, no really it was mutual) and was using a part of her paycheck towards groceries every week. Esther was picking up hours, too, even though she normally worked from home. It wasn’t easy, but they were making do, and everyone was confident that they’d be fine until Mayer could go back to work.

Everyone but David, anyway.

David felt useless. He felt like he was sucking up resources every time he asked for lunch money, or new pencils, so he’d stopped doing both, and everyone was starting to worry.

Except for Jack. He was just getting angry.

When he confronted David after school, the two of them out on the fire escape, he’d tried to sound as serious and adult as a seventeen year old could manage. “You gotta quit beating yourself up for existing, Dave. You’re making everyone stress about you, and they don’t need another thing dragging them down while they’re already worrying about your dad. Maybe you should get out of the house, take a load off, and have some fun. You need to lighten up and quit acting like an old man.”

“You’re right,” David told him, nodding and smiling a bit.

Jack grinned right back, ready to rattle off a list of things they could do, people they could see, spots they could stop by just like they usually did, his own excitement growing because it felt like it’d been ages since he and David had hung out –

“I’m going to go call Darcy. Thanks Jack.”

Right. Darcy. The boyfriend.

David spared Jack one more smile before heading inside, and Jack had waved half-heartedly before heading down the steps of the fire escape and tried to pretend like that hadn’t hurt as bad as it did.

 

5.

David didn’t go to the boy’s home often, and Jack didn’t blame him. He didn’t like being there much either, but he had to show his face at least a few times a week or he got in trouble with his social worker.

Lately though, Jack had been spending more time in the cramped building he slept in more often than not. Darcy got along really well with David’s family, and Jack felt like the awkward cousin nobody wanted around but didn’t have the heart to send home.

So he sent himself home.

Being told he had a visitor was a rare occurrence in itself, one that Jack typically didn’t enjoy, because Snyder was a nasty guy with bad people skills and worse breath, and Jack still wasn’t sure how he’d gotten a job in social work.

So he’d headed for the foyer with a list of clever insults in his head, ready to start rambling them off, only to be stopped short by David standing awkwardly at the foot of the steps.

“The hell are you doing here?” Jack asked, glancing at old man Kloppman to let him know he was fine and could handle his visitor on his own.

Now that he was close enough, Jack could see the red rims around David’s eyes, the way his cheeks were blotchy and still damp, like he’d been crying and couldn’t be bothered to care what people thought if they’d noticed.

“Darcy and I broke up,” David said softly, his voice a little hoarse.

Jack hadn’t been expecting that. Something happening to Mayer, or maybe Les, had been his first guess. Something related to David’s relationship hadn’t even crossed his mind. It’d seemed so solid, at least to him.

To David, too, if his reaction was anything to go by.

Jack wrapped his arm around David’s shoulder and headed for the front door. “I think this calls for ice cream, and a visit to Spot. You know, if you word it the right way, Spot’ll slash a guy’s tires for you. He knows how to do it so their insurance won’t pay for it and everything.”

David chuckled, the sound a little too watery and pathetic for Jack’s liking, but it was better than nothing. He’d get a real laugh out of him later.

 

+1.

Jack was packing. Not a foreign concept, not when he changed house as much as he did before he was placed in the boy’s home when he started high school. Still though, there was something about packing for a more permanent home that left Jack wanting to hold on to some sort of memory of this moment.

He was starting college soon. He and Sarah had graduated high school, David cheering loudly when they’d both walked the stage, and now he was going to college.

The state school wasn’t really much to brag about, but with his money from the state he could afford to live on campus, and it was close enough to home he wouldn’t be losing contact with anyone. Dave still had a year of high school left, and so did Mush, and Spot, and he wasn’t gonna miss any of that if he could help it.

He was going to college. Man, if his ma could see him now.

Jack could hear heavy footsteps coming up the steps outside the door to the room he’d been sharing with three other boys, and rolled his eyes. “I told you, Kloppman, I’m almost done, I don’t need –”

The door swung open, cutting Jack off. Instead of Kloppman standing in the entrance like Jack had been expecting, it was David, red in the face and out of breath.

“You are an _asshole_ , Jack Kelly,” he said, glaring at Jack and looking like he might explode.

So Jack did the only reasonable thing to do in a situation like that; he crossed the room in a few long strides and pulled David into a kiss.

David responded almost immediately, hands gripping Jack’s shirt while Jack dragged his fingers through David’s curls, the two of them moving together like gears in a clock.

David laughed when they broke apart. “You’re an idiot,” he said, resting his forehead against Jack’s and playing with the hem of the older boy’s shirt.

“I know.”

“I like you a lot.”

Jack grinned widely, a comforting sense of belonging settling in him.

“Yeah, I know that, too.”


End file.
